42 Canadian Forestry Journal 



industrial life, and as years go by modern civilized man demands 

 and uses more and more wood, all substitution by iron, steel, 

 cement, etc., to the contrary notwithstanding. 



There are some who are better acquainted with the forests 

 than the markets, and others who are acquainted with neither 

 forest nor markets, who still believe and speak of Canada's 

 "inexhaustible" forests. Take any man through a 400,000 acre 

 lot of fine forest so thoroughly that he will have seen all the 

 trees, and it is most likely that he will be ready to believe in 

 inexhaustible forests. Tell him that all the trees that he has 

 seen would hardly supply the needs of the railways of North 

 America for cross-ties for a single year, and his "inexhaustible" 

 will appear as futile as it is. We have great but diminishing 

 forests and great and ever growing needs for forest products. 



For the Conservation of Stream Flow. 



2. Second only in importance to the function of the forest 

 as a producer of wood is its function as a regulator of the flow 

 of streams. 



Canada's wealth in her water-powers is very large. Some 

 one has estimated that two-fifths of the water powers of the 

 world are found on Canadian soil. Whether this be correct or 

 not there is no doubt but that the water-powers of Canada 

 vastly excel those of any other nation: What this will mean 

 for her industrial future it is impossible to forecast, perhaps 

 impossible to exaggerate. Add to this the value of the streams 

 for irrigation, domestic use, and navigation, and who would 

 dare guess how many figures would be required to express the 

 value of Canada's streams a century or even half a century 

 hence if maintained in their present efficiency? 



If the forest lands of Canada be placed under a rational 

 forest management, the present efficiency, by which I mean 

 of course the regularity of her stream flow, may not be maintain- 

 ed only, but much increased. Present methods of lumbering 

 with their accompaniment of fire on the lumbered lands are 

 annually and to a large extent permanently, subtracting from 

 the value of this great national asset. 



For Public Revenue. 



3. A third reason for conducting lumbering operations on 

 non-agricultural lands with a view to improving and perpe- 

 tuating the forests is found in the fact that it is only by main- 

 taining such lands under forest crops that they may be made 

 to permanently contribute to the wealth of the Provinces or the 

 Nation. Compared acre for acre with arable lands, these rough 

 lands have a low producing capacity. The vastness of the area 

 involved, however, places the non-agricultural lands of Canada 

 in the front rank of her natural resources. 



